Font problems

98 Vs ME Vs XP, etc.

[GrinninGordon]

Hi

I hope someone can help.

I have a site which really lends itself to using handwriting style fonts for the titles and navigation column. I *really* want to keep this.

Trouble is, of course, different Windows OS have different standard fonts. And it is not just about the font style, there are size and alignment issues as well.

At the moment, I am using (for example, title);

FONT-FAMILY: Lucida Handwriting, Comic Sans MS, Modern, sans-serif; and MARGIN-LEFT: 5PX; / MARGIN-TOP: -2PX;

With no size attributes. In Windows 98, the Lucidia is just a little too high and too long. In ME the Comic Sans MS is just a tad too high and way too small / short (width wise). In XP the Modern is just a tad too low.

Any ideas?

:-)

[msr986]

I think you can already see the "handwriting" on the wall.

Using a specialized font will only work on a small percentage of machines. In fact, there is only a small number of fonts that you can count on reliably.

One suggestion (which is not very good) is to convert the titles to graphics. At least this will show consistently across all browsers.

[amznVibe]

If the majority of your visitors are using windows IE5-IE6 (like most stats show they own 80%-90% of the market) then you can simply use the webfont technology in IE. It works very well once you get the hang of it. Search for WEFT to learn more.

Alternatively you can detect if certain fonts are there via javascript and switch stylesheets on the fly to conform to sizes and spacing for the different fonts. Technically possible but messy. (The only way to check a font via javascript is to write a hidden div and compare text overflows - there is no direct way)

[GrinninGordon]

Thanks guys, I decided it was better (for the mutual sake of SE's and users) to stick with text and go for defined size comic sans whatever, with modern and arial as fall backs.

[hartlandcat]

So... it was only Comic Sans MS? Any Windows 95 or later computer will have Comic Sans MS, some Windows 3.1s will have it and I think most Macs have it as well.

[hartlandcat]

Sorry, ignore that reply --- I'd confused this with another simular thread.